Among a variety of techniques, Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) or ZigBee focuses on service discovery and service use between devices within a specific Personal Area Network (PAN), whereas tethering focuses on connectivity between heterogeneous networks.
Unlike the simple PAN, the concept of CPNS has been introduced.
In the CPNS, devices can belong to a PN (or PAN) and receive various services.
The CPNS is implemented by a CPNS server, a CPNS GateWay (CPNS GW) (or a PN GateWay (PN GW)), and a CPNS device (or a PN Element (PNE)). Besides, a general server, general devices, etc. may exist for the CPNS.
The CPNS is provided based on a PN formed with a set of devices. A CPNS GW is deployed in the PN and services of the devices belonging to the PN are registered to the CPNS server through the CPNS GW. Thus a device that provides a specific service may be searched for in the CPNS server and an external device may share the specific service provided by the device based on the search.
The CPNS GW connects the PN to another network. A CPNS device is a member of the PN. One or more devices may form one PN.
FIG. 1 is an exemplary view illustrating the concept of the CPNS. A content server, a CPNS server, a PN GW, and PNEs are shown in FIG. 1.
The CPNS server may communicate with one or more PN GWs and may transmit data to or receive data from the PN GWs. The CPNS server may exchange data with one or more CPNS devices within PNs (or PANs) through the PN GWs by communication. Each of the PNEs may transmit data to or receive data from one or more other PNEs or general devices through a CPNS GW. A PN GW may transmit data to or receive data from the CPNS server, a PN GW belonging to another PN, or a PNE by communication.
The CPNS server may transmit data to or receive data from a general server and a PN GW by communication. For example, the CPNS server and the PN GW may communicate with each other through a cellular network and the PN GW and a PNE may communicate with each other by short-range communication such as Bluetooth, Near Field Communication (NFC), ZigBee, Wireless Fidelity (WiFi), etc.
The CPNS server may manage and control communication between a PN GW and a PNE. The resulting exchange of applications and information may increase user experience. For example, in FIG. 1, a user may acquire location information from another PNE (e.g., a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver) through one of PNEs, for example, a PNE that does not have a location measurement function, may transmit the location information to the CPNS server through the PN GW, and may receive a location-based service from the CPNS server. In this manner, if there is a PNE having a function that another PNE does not have in the same PN, a user may receive various services through various PNEs of the PN by the CPNS.
The CPNS supports two models: a client-server model in which a server provides a service to a PNE under management of a CPNS server and a peer-to-peer model in which different PNs are combined.
In the client-server model that is basically considered, the coverage of a service provided to a mobile phone PN GW1 over a cellular network can be expanded to other devices PNE1 to PNE3 connected to PN GW1. The PNEs may receive various services provided by a content server (or an application server) through PN GW1.
There is a conventional PN setup method in which each time a PN is set up, a user should perform a procedure of connecting a PN GW to PNEs and establishing a PN from the beginning step by step in order to set up the PN. Or a desired PN may be set up only by inviting a desired additional entity other than entities (a PN GW and a PNE) of a current PN to the current PN or removing a corresponding entity from the current PN. That is, there is no function of returning to a previous PN setup state using previous PN information or searching for frequently used PN information.